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The reality of rurality for survivors of sexual violence
RASASH supports survivors of any gender aged 13+ across Highland. They offer face-to-face support and advocacy as well as remote support by phone, text and email. RASASH’s outreach team travels across Highland to reduce the barriers that rurality can pose to accessing face-to-face support, regardless of where a survivor lives.
In a small community, you’re accused of ruining someone’s life because you’ve called him out.
I couldn’t turn to anybody for help, because that sort of thing was not spoken about.
Nobody warned me, because it’s a small town, it’s ‘nobody’s business.’ Yet, it’s everybody’s business
These are the people who… just need to retain their own comfort so [they] deny your reality or minimise it.
I think there’s comfort living in rural places – that everyone knows everyone’s business but when there’s an overarching, dominant narrative of ‘you should be quiet now’, it’s really destructive… If the majority are thinking like that then you are totally alone.
The words above are taken from some of the people who RASASH has supported in Highland who spoke out in a recent BBC Alba documentary to share their stories. These brave testimonies speak to the reality of experiencing sexual violence in the rural parts of our country, in areas where there is a hugely flawed perception that things ‘like that’ do not ‘happen here.’ These belief systems are hugely damaging, further isolating survivors. Such thinking is not limited to outsiders’ perceptions of the quaint, picture-perfect Highland villages where they spend their summer holidays – in fact, oftentimes locals themselves can think along these lines too. A culture of silence enables abuse to thrive and protects perpetrators: this is a fact.
There are fewer services on the ground in these places, there are often great distances to travel to reach the services which do exist, and public transport is typically limited and costly. Communities, while often close-knit, are not necessarily safe for survivors. The widely held belief that abusers are one-off, ‘over there and not here’, rather than embedded within our communities compounds the challenges facing survivors, whether they disclose their abuse or not. Perpetrators are everyday people: the local postie, teacher, the shopkeeper who sells you the Sunday papers. Whilst it’s uncomfortable to face this reality, it is nevertheless one that must be acknowledged.
RASASH support workers travel to meet survivors where they are to ensure we are offering an equitable service, regardless of geography. We know that people deserve support whether they are based in an urban centre or a rural hamlet. We are confidential. We are not based within the communities we travel to, so we are able to offer you a degree of anonymity: it’s likely we won’t know who you are referring to in your support sessions and this can be of great comfort to survivors.
We are here and ready to support you when the time is right for you and will never push you into reporting to the police. We want you to know that your story matters, you are believed and you are in control of your own recovery. We know that sexual violence doesn’t discriminate based on where you live. It happens here too.
RASASH can be contacted via phone, text, or email:
- Phone: 03330 066909
- Text: 07451 288080
- Email: support@rasash.org.uk
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